Film Review: La Jetée

Figure 1.

“La Jetée is a persistent impression, visual and sound that turns the viewer’s perception upside down. Few films have put into place with so much economy and clairvoyance a mechanism as complex as the human memory. (La Jetée, c’est une impression persistante, sonore et visuelle qui bouleverse la perception du spectateur. Peu de films ont mis en scène avec autant d’économie et de clairvoyance un mécanisme aussi complexe que celui de la mémoire humaine.)” (Beaunay, 2013)

Overtly influenced by Vertigo (Dir: Hitchcock, 1958), Chris Marker’s photo-roman La Jetée (1962) is itself a remarkable ode to the influential property of memory. Whilst both films focus on the fascinating, indelible effect mental images can have on an individual, Marker’s unusual approach to cinema truly explores the medium’s essence as an allegory to the crumbling galleries of our minds. Instead of involving the audience through a recreation of simultaneity, the filmmaker recounts his story via a series of suspended moments, captured with gravity and innocence through a Pentax 24x36 camera. 

Jean-Louis Schefer outlines the unique and powerful quality of Marker’s minimalism in these words: “A framing of the most obscure zones of memory’s fragility and unpredictability; and a montage that replicates gaps in recollection” (Schefer, 1990). The moyen-métrage’s strength undeniably resides in its self-conscious detachment from motion pictures. The elliptic result inherent to this type of storytelling is not without reminding us of how the very act of remembering works. Similarly to the succession of stills, memories cannot indeed be reported in their entirety but in fragments, where emotionalism is often stronger than accurateness.

Figure 2.

Even though La Jetée contains much fewer images than our usual cinematic experience, it is amazing how quickly the black and white clichés take us on a poignant journey between an apocalyptic present, a lost past and a distant future. As the latters evoke bleak or hopeful sentiments in turn, their impact is strengthened by a concise but profound oral narration as well as a mostly ambient soundscape. These acoustic elements, considered primordial by Marker, help weaving a fluid storyline between the photographs. Music and sound effects are also used in an expressionist manner throughout La Jetée to deepen the narrator’s poetic prose: the increasing volume of an airplane engine, a reimagined version of Herrmann’s score or quickening heartbeats therefore create an indissociable layer of emotion that images alone couldn’t have communicated.

Furthermore, sound design emphasizes the notion of rhythm in the filmmaker’s editing, as the pace in which the pictures follow one another is heavy with meaning. Whilst a single image can tell many things, the juxtaposition of different snapshots as well as the duration of their intervals often impart them with a sense of narrative and tone. In La Jetée, Marker seems to rely on Eisenstein’s montage theory to spark a clear message – and certainly feeling – through their carefully planned organisation. The incredible plot of his photo-roman is thus conveyed effortlessly in one of the most simplistic manner seen in the science-fiction genre.

Figure 3. Marker’s way of treating the stills are also able to make us see things under a new light, an interesting example being Jean-Pierre Sudre’s ‘micromatières’ transformation into satellite views.

Figure 4.

Additionally, the filmmaker’s "choice" for photography over a posterior process falls superbly into line with the story’s quest to go back in time, back to the world of the man’s childhood. As it often shares strong connections to personal key memories, the photo medium makes the protagonists’ retrouvailles feel incredibly intimate, erasing for a while the universal purpose of the scientists’ design. There is something photo album-esque about the characters' time together, the immutability of the snaps leaving them in an oneiric present-past. “This is, ultimately, what makes a series of stills so effective – they feel alive, but tied to the past, tied to a fate that has already been set” (Battleship Pretension, 2012).

Figure 5.

For all the above reasons, it is hard to think of La Jetée in any other format. Which is why it comes off as a shock when one of the images suddenly comes to life and the woman opens her eyes. But just as we think the time-traveller is finally reunited with the person whose face he’s never forgotten, that he isn’t just a ghost to her anymore, that they’ve reached a shared temporality and that history is being written again, Marker brings us implacably back to the man’s present. A still shot of the head scientist’s severe traits brutally replaces the woman’s face as a dead silence interrupts the birds’ climaxing melody. And so it goes on: the more the man’s ‘jetées’ bring him closer towards the one he loves, the harder the fall is, which ultimately becomes fatal.  

Bibliography.

Battleship Pretension (2012). Home Video Hovel - La Jetée/Sans Soleil At: http://battleshippretension.com/home-video-hovel-la-jeteesans-soleil/ (Accessed on 12/01/15)

Beaunay, Julien (2013). La Jetée de Chris Marker | Format Court At: https://www.formatcourt.com/2013/02/la-jetee-de-chris-marker/ (Accessed on 12/01/15)

Schefer, Jean-Louis (1990). On La Jetée by Jean-Louis Schefer (Translated by Paul Smith) At: http://chrismarker.org/chris-marker-2/jean-louis-schefer-on-la-jete/ (Accessed on 12/01/15)

Illustration List.

Figure 1. La Jetée (1962)  [Poster] At: http://www.amoeba.com/blog/2008/03/writings-from-the-holy-texan/still-life-telling-time-in-la-jetee-with-henri-bergson-the-human-torch-and-ec-s-weird-science.html (Accessed on 21/01/15)

Figure 2. Experiment Still. (1962) From: La Jetée. Directed by: Marker, C. [Film still] France: Argos Film. At: http://drytoasts.com/category/arts/ (Accessed on 21/01/15)

Figure 3. Micromatière Still. (1962) From: La Jetée. Directed by: Marker, C. [Film still] France: Argos Film. At: https://vimeo.com/42460300 (Accessed on 21/01/15)

Figure 4. Rencontre Still. (1962) From: La Jetée. Directed by: Marker, C. [Film still] France: Argos Film. At: http://www.desarte.org/la-jetee-1962-de-chris-marker/ (Accessed on 21/01/15)

Figure 5. Rencontre Still. (1962) From: La Jetée. Directed by: Marker, C. [Film still] France: Argos Film. At: http://www.zomblogalypse.com/2012/05/movie-production-blog-2/ (Accessed on 21/01/15)